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Music videos changed the rhythm of cinema, according to Disclosure Day director Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg says music videos ruined films forever in one fundamental way that can still be felt today
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If you ever pop on a movie from the Golden Age of Cinema, it might strike you just how different the pacing is. Citizen Kane, one of the most popular films ever produced, lets the audience breathe in the scenes, and doesn’t rush to move the story along. Compare that to recent films like Project Hail Mary or Avatar, and you’ll see the difference.
What happened? According to Jaws and Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg, it all started with the launch of MTV in 1981.
“Films move really fast,” Steven Spielberg says during an interview with The Big Picture’s Sean Fennessey. “It’s good if you see a film again because it moves too fast. We like that. But that’s not the reason you should see a film a second time. You should see a film a second time because you were profoundly moved in some way by it.”
“But films are moving faster, and it all started with music videos. The whole music video generation of that propulsive action and cramming in two and a half minutes. A lot of cuts, a lot of montage in two and a half minutes. And then commercials. Television commercials began moving faster. This is before films started to pick up speed to keep abreast of music videos and commercials back in the 80s. And now there is just with everything available, TikTok and Instagram.”
If music videos forced movies to have faster pacing, I can only imagine how TikTok and Instagram Reels will influence the next generation of cinema.
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